Chapter 133

Joseph’s POV

It felt good to finally allow myself time to rest. But I was woken early in the evening by the sound of hard knocking on my door. I groaned as I got myself out of bed and left my room. Tessa was back in the hospital with Connor watching over her, so I knew she was safe.

She was also doing a lot better when I left her; I was relieved that she was going to be okay. I made a decision that as soon as she was on her feet again, I would take her far away from this village and bring her home. I never wanted her to return here again; not after what had happened with Ryan.

That loud knocking continued, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. When I opened the door, I saw a very anxious Bernard standing before me with a couple of warriors on either side of him.

I furrowed my brows together, confused.

“What’s going on?” I asked, staring between all of them.

“Ryan is back,” Bernard seethed. “He had the nerve to return to the village. I sense him going to his home.”

I clenched my fists tightly; he had no idea that we knew what he did. He was going to pay for the pain he caused Tessa.

“Get a hold of Connor and more warriors. I have a feeling Ryan isn’t going to go down without a fight.”

“Already on it,” Bernard said in return.

By the time we got to Ryan’s house, the others were already there, including Connor.

“How was Tessa when you left?” That was the first thing I asked him.

“Better,” he said, and I couldn’t see the honesty in his face. “The girls were just about to gossip about me before I left,” he added with a smug smile, making me roll my eyes.

“Don’t get too excited, you know we have to wipe her memories when this is all over,” I reminded him, watching as his face fell.

“I don’t see why. She’s handling this information well and now Tessa has someone to talk to about it,” Connor said with what looked like a pout.

Was he serious right now??

“It’s dangerous for her to know about any of this,” I said firmly. “She has to forget everything she had seen here and continue her normal life.”

“What about Tessa? Why does she get to remember everything?”

How could I explain that Tessa was different? When I opened my mouth to speak, Bernard joined us.

“If you two are done, we have business,” Bernard said through his teeth.

I realized the warriors had already drawn their weapons. It was only Ryan, so I wasn’t sure why they looked like they were about to fight in a war.

It didn’t matter though because Ryan was mine to deal with. I went toward Ryan’s house and just before I busted through his door, he opened it and narrowed his icy eyes at me.

He looked beyond me at the warriors before fixing his eyes back on me.

“Oh, this is rich,” he said darkly. “What honor do I have for—”

Before he could finish his sentence, I punched him hard in the face, making him fall backward.

I was breathing heavily over him; the longer I stared at him, the angrier I grew. He had a lot of nerve showing his face here after what he had done.

“What the fuck,” he seethed through his teeth, glaring up at me from the ground. “You piece of shit!”

He jumped to his feet and was about to punch me back, but I managed to move out of his way, grabbing his arm in the process and jamming my knee into his back, pushing him to the ground with all my force.

He yelled out in pain as I swung again, punching him in the back of the head before flipping him over and doing the same to his face yet again.

“Get the hell off me!!” He growled; his eyes glowed scarlet as he seethed underneath me, but I wasn’t going to get off him.

I punched him again before Bernard stepped forward.

“Are you just going to let him do this??” Ryan hissed to Bernard.

“Where’s the moonstone?” Bernard asked, his voice dry and emotionless.

Ryan narrowed his eyes at him, pretending to be confused.

“What?” Ryan asked, staring at Bernard in shock.

“I said, where is the moonstone,” Bernard said again, his tone darkening. “We know you have it.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about…”

“Wrong answer,” I growled, punching him again and again until his face was covered in his own blood.

I knew this wasn’t good enough, he was going to heal in due time. But it was very satisfying punching him and nobody stopped me.

“If I were you, I’d stop playing stupid,” Bernard said, folding his arms across his chest.

“What kind of Eldest allows this type of violence on his vampire?” Ryan asked, spitting blood out of his mouth.

“You turned your back on me and our goddess,” Bernard stated, curling his lip up in disgust. “I can’t tap into you like I can the others. Which means you somehow figured out how to go rogue.”

“Why would I go rogue? They never welcome vampires from the tribe. ”

“Is that why you have your hideout underground?” Connor asked, raising his brows.

At that point, Ryan snapped him a look.

“What?”

“That’s right… we found your little hideout and just so you know, Tessa is okay,” Connor continued. “Can’t say the same for that new vampire though.”

Ryan’s smug look drooped as he realized how much trouble he was truly in.

“How did you become rogue without an Elder?” Bernard asked, narrowing his eyes at Ryan.

Ryan glared at Bernard.

“I’ll never tell you,” he seethed.

“Another wrong answer,” I hissed, punching him in the nose; I heard a crack and knew I had broken his nose.

“No matter,” Bernard said, shaking his head in disgust. “All that matters right now is that Tessa is safe, Fae is alive, and you are never going to go near either of them again.”

“Fae is alive??” Ryan asked, his eyes growing wide.

“She’s the only reason we were able to find your hideout,” Connor explained, shrugging. “She proved to be very useful to us. But yes, she’s alive and you are never going to hurt her again.”

Bernard turned to look at the warriors and motioned with his head toward Ryan’s house. Without hesitation, they went into the house. Ryan struggled against me and protested the invasion of his privacy, but that just made me laugh.

I grabbed him by the throat, redirecting his attention to me.

“I will never allow you near Tessa again,” I growled. “I will make sure you will pay for every bruise and every cut on her body.”

“I…didn’t… do that…” he gasped, trying to maintain the breath I restricted from him. “Why would I want… to hurt her…. I needed her….”

“We aren’t going to kill him,” Bernard said, grabbing my arm to pull my grip away from Ryan’s throat.

“The hell we are,” I said through my teeth.

“Seriously, Joseph. Let him go. We aren’t going to kill him. We will lock him up, but I still have questions for him. I need to find out some things and I need him alive to get the answers.”

I was reluctant to let him go; I saw fucking red, and I just wanted to punch him until he stopped breathing. I wanted to watch life drain from his pathetic eyes. I wanted him to feel every ounce of pain just as he did to Tessa.

But I also knew Bernard was right; the rational elder side of my brain knew that we couldn’t kill him because there were a lot of questions we needed answered and he was the only one who could answer them considering I killed the new vampire.

I finally released him, pleased with myself as Ryan coughed, and gasped for breath.

The warriors left the house and walked toward Bernard. One of them held a golden chain and attached to the chain was the moonstone. Bernard smiled, pleased, as he took the pendant.

“Cuff him and put him in the dungeon of the Vamp House,” Bernard ordered.

The warriors did so immediately.

I was still breathing heavily when Bernard approached me. He placed a firm hand on my shoulder.

“You should check on Tessa. We can handle the rest from here,” Bernard said gently.

“I want answers too,” I said, meeting Bernard’s eyes.

“I doubt we will find out much this evening. I’m going to make sure he gets to the dungeon and see if he’s willing to talk. But in the meantime, you should check on Tessa. You aren’t going to be thinking straight until you see her.”

He was right; my mind was racing, and it wasn’t going to settle down until Tessa was okay and back in my arms, so I nodded to him.

I said my goodbyes, turned and went straight to the infirmary. When I got there, I heard light chuckling and some whispering coming from inside the infirmary.

Tessa was awake, and she was speaking.

When I opened the door and stepped inside, her eyes found mine and I saw the light in them. A smile appeared on her lips, and she opened her mouth to say something. But then her eyes shifted downward, and they widened.

Her face fell into what looked like a horrified frown.

“What the fuck happened to you?!” It was Ruby who asked.

I frowned at her, looked down at my clothing and gasped.

I was covered in blood.